Saturday, May 21, 2011

Summer Runninghood Group for Women! Who's Game?? Support, Motivation, Inspiration, and Bonding!

It's Saturday, it isn't raining, and my husband is home sweet home!  There is a happy and complete feeling around the house and we all seem to be buzzing with that Saturday morning cartoons and coffee "we're all together" vibe!  After a few hours of laziness I'll head out on my 16 mile run.  I will attempt to do 12 of my miles at marathon pace (shooting for a 7:30 pace).  I'm confident that the adjustment, sports massage, and new running shoes should only help me accomplish my running goals today.  Hoping the sports massage didn't exhaust my muscles too much.  


So, for all of you local runners and moms in the area (Oregon/Washington), I'm throwing around a few ideas for this summer.  I don't have anything solid in place yet but I'm thinking about organizing a summer group for mothers.  You don't have to be a mother or a runner to be part of the group either, although I'm thinking that the group will have something to do with fitness and running as well as issues that come up in our daily life as a mother!  Here are just a few very initial thoughts for this Runninghood group:

  • A group for mothers of all kinds.  Working mothers, stay-at-home mothers, mothers of grown kids, mothers of young children, pregnant mothers, etc.  Even wanna be someday mamas that are just not there yet!  
  • Meeting once a month.
  • I will mostly likely send out questions or a topic relating to motherhood or fitness/running that we can all reflect on between meetings.  I might even suggest a book we can read together or an article that is of particular interest.  Or just a chapter of a book that we all might find interesting and fun!  
  • Something EASY and VERY LITTLE work involved.  This will be about connecting with other moms and not about having more work to do!  Ha!  My plan is for it to be a stress relief, NOT something that should add stress. 
  • When we meet we can meet over coffee, tea, water, or ever a nice cold beer and discuss our questions, topics, or whatever comes to mind. Or just listen or talk about nothing related to motherhood or running but instead discuss how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a lot of kids or how Katie Holmes looks so cute prego. 
  • Maybe a nice slow social jog walk or group run of varying pace groups together before we discuss our topics, books, or whatever.  And it will be summer in the Pacific Northwest and we will actually be able to meet at outside locations as well as finding fun inside places.
  • We can change the location every week....Vancouver, downtown Portland (Powell's would be fun after jogging on the waterfront), forest park and then a local bar in the Northwest area.
  • I might suggest that we all start a Motherhood/Runner/Fitness journal together for our group.  No eye rolls now! This would be optional since we don't all love to write but it could be a place to reflect during the month and note your thinking about whatever topic we decide to focus on for the month.  We could even do some fun vision or art collages together as a way to get our creative energy flowing.  I would bring the glue, magazines, even music! 
  • An opportunity to get hooked up with other mothers, runners, or women that have common goals and issues.  Even if you have never run or done anything related to fitness in your LIFE!  This would be a great way to PLUG IN in a SAFE and NON-COMPETITIVE environment where we are all about coming together to encourage, support, and relate to each other.  
I would love to hear your thoughts about this potential Runninghood group for Women (even if you're not a mom).  Women of all walks, sizes, age...YOU! I'm thinking this could be a really fun way to connect and be inspired by each other!  So, who's down?  


Amanda

26 comments:

  1. Wishing I lived a little further north :)

    You all will have a blast!

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  2. This is such a good idea. Wish I lived on the West Coast. If you ever decide to go Nationwide and have representatives from every State, I'm in!! I'll even be your CT Rep!

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  3. Kristin, maybe you're on to something! :)

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  4. Yup, take it national! I've got your back in TN!

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  5. Man I wish you would've done this last summer when I was in OR! Sounds like an excellent idea :) Good luck with it!

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  6. Keep us updated on your run today! I'm intrigued by the thought of running AFTER a massage.

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  7. How did the run go?? It sounded like fun, I'm missing the marathon training, I hope yours is going well!!

    Your group sounds wonderful, wish I could be a part of it! You are so great at reaching out to others and especially other moms...it is truly a gift to be able to do that AND integrate your other passions. Keep us posted!

    How are the kids? I feel so out of the loop with your blog and life! I'm kind of busy with doing the HOUSE SELLING dance which you recommended AND my job but I will be more consistent with everything else some day soon!!

    xoxo

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  8. I am totally in!!! My friends have been on me forever to start a running group and I had one going before I got pregnant with my now 22 month old. Love to do this and recruit others :) Hope your 16 miler went well. I should have run with you today. Mine was only 10 at 7:20 though. Would have loved to have gone longer :) Are you doing a fall marathon?

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  9. Great idea, and you'd be the perfect organizer of such an event! Have a blast!! (and check with SBS, she has a group I think - maybe you can get some route ideas or something from her).

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  10. Yeah-only scrapbooking groups in MN.....Sounds awesome and you would be such an awesome organizer of such a group! Wish I lived closer!

    SMOKIN' awesome run today girl!!! Can't WAIT for your marathon!!!!!

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  11. Your new group sounds great! Too bad I'm not closer. :)

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  12. This is an incredible idea and if I lived closer I would be ALL over it. how fun! I usually like living in a small, less populated area, but i would love to have a running group and bloggy meetups sometimes. Awesome idea! :)

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  13. Hi! I switched to Wordpress because I really struggled with finding a template that was clean-looking on Blogspot (though you found one... not fair), and I was spending a lot of time in HTML trying to get my photos to align correctly, because for some reason, i couldn't get them right using the blogger uploader. It caused me enough frustration that I just decided to switch, and was finally convinced bc Wordpress can import a blogger blog into the new wordpress blog (from what I've read, the opposite is not true). But my frustration now is that I can't create a side bar to something they haven't already created (read: allowed). So, no direct link to a FB page, no pretty twitter link, no follower counts. However, these plugins would be allowed if I self-hosted my site and used Wordpress simply as a template, which it seem that some might do, but I'm not tech savvy enough for this, nor do I wish to put up the self-hosting $$. Was that too long an answer? My other (and final) frustration is that Blogspot doesn't like Wordpress a lot, and there are more steps to commenting on a Blogspot blog from a Wordpress acct. I don't remember this being true when I had a Blogspot acct and commented on Wordpress blogs.

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  14. What a lovely idea. Mothers need other mothers to interact with - to share the good times and the bad. I hope your proposal gets a lot of takers.

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  15. AWESOME idea!! I'm in the Tri-Cities so not sure if I'm too far away? I'm so in if not!!

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  16. such a great idea! wish i was in portland so I could participate!

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  17. Wish I lived closer to you!! Great ideas!

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  18. I'm not in Portland yet, but will be living there in a few years, and I think this is a great idea! I'm also not a mom yet, but would love to go ahead and soak up as much advice as I can get!

    I'll be in Portland for a little bit this summer... Maybe I could make it to a meeting?? :D

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  19. Aw...wish I lived in The Northwest!!

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  20. You are so awesome :) I would come if I lived in the area even though I'm not a mom!

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  21. I am SO IN!!!!! Squuuuuueeeeel! and a little excited if you cant tell! :)

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  22. I am game for being your Eastern Wa rep! Have your people call my people.

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  23. You had me until mother/runner/fitness journal. Ha ha. Seriously, though. Sounds like a great idea. But eastern Idaho won't allow me to be part of your group. Good luck getting it going!

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